Communications Method and Equipment

ABSTRACT

The present invention discloses a communications method and equipment and relates to the field of wireless communications, which are used to solve a problem that data offloading communications cannot be initiated because data offloading information of a network transmission peer end in a process of data offloading cannot be acquired in the prior art. A first network element queries data offloading capability information of a second network element from a server, where the first network element has a capability of data offloading. The first network element receives a message that carries the data offloading capability information of the second network element and is sent by the server. The first network element offloadingly transmit data which is to be sent when the message indicates that the second network element has a capability of data offloading.

This application is a continuation of International Application No.PCT/CN2012/086175 filed on Dec. 7, 2012, which claims priority toChinese Patent Application No. 201110414871.4, filed on Dec. 13, 2011,both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and inparticular, to a communications method and equipment.

BACKGROUND

In the mobile communications market, with the update of a communicationstechnology, an air interface throughput rate, namely, a rate oftransmission between nodes during network transmission also increasescontinuously. However, with the increase of the number of users and thegrowth of data services, the air interface throughput rate is still abottleneck. On the other hand, in the prior art, a network transmissiontechnology has a feature of diversity. Therefore, more and more terminalequipments can perform data offloading transmission, that is, fortransmitted data, distribute a part of the data through a dataoffloading function to a network in a non-current mode for synchronoustransmission, thereby improving the air interface throughput rate.

But in the prior art, for data offloading, there must be a network or auser equipment supporting the function of data offloading. However, inthe prior art, before a network and a user equipment complete dataoffloading handshaking communications, the network and the userequipment cannot obtain whether the peer end supports a data offloadingfunction, so that a delay of implementation of data offloadingtransmission is long and efficiency is low.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a communications method andequipment, which are used to solve a problem that a delay ofimplementation of data offloading transmission is long and efficiency islow because a network and a terminal cannot obtain data offloadingcapability information of each other before the network and the terminalcomplete data offloading handshaking communications in the prior art.

To achieve the foregoing objectives, the embodiments of the presentinvention adopt the following technical solutions.

A communications method includes querying, by a first network element,data offloading capability information of a second network element froma server, where the first network element has a capability ofimplementing data offloading, receiving, by the first network element, amessage that carries the data offloading capability information of thesecond network element and is sent by the server, and offloadinglytransmit, by the first network element, data when the message indicatesthat the second network element has a capability of implementing dataoffloading.

A communications equipment includes a querying module, configured toquery data offloading capability information of a second network elementfrom a server, where the communications equipment has a capability ofimplementing data offloading, an acquiring module, configured to receivea message that carries the data offloading capability information of thesecond network element and is sent by the server, and a transmittingmodule, configured to offloadingly transmit data when the messageindicates that the second network element has a capability ofimplementing data offloading.

A communications method includes receiving, by a server, a message ofquerying data offloading capability information of a second networkelement, where the message is sent by a first network element, and thefirst network element has a capability of implementing data offloading,and sending, by the server, a message of the queried data offloadingcapability information of the second network element to the firstnetwork element, so as to offloadingly transmit data.

A server includes an acquiring module, configured to receive a messageof querying data offloading capability information of a second networkelement, where the message is sent by a first network element, and thefirst network element has a capability of implementing data offloading,and a sending module, configured to send a message of the queried dataoffloading capability information of the second network element to thefirst network element, so as to perform data offloading transmission.

A communications method includes sending, by a first network element, adata offloading request message to a second network element, andoffloadingly transmit, by the first network element, data which is to besent when the first network element receives a data offloadingacknowledgement message sent by the second network element.

A communications equipment includes a sending module, configured to senda data offloading request message to a second network element, and atransmitting module, configured to data offloadingly transmit data whichis to be sent when the communications equipment receives a dataoffloading acknowledgement message sent by the second network element.

The embodiments of the present invention provide a communications methodand equipment. Data offloading capability information of equipments attwo sides of data transmission in a network is acquired through activequery, so that the equipments at two sides of data transmission in thenetwork can smoothly perform data offloading transmission through theacquired data offloading capability information, thereby improving anair interface throughput rate of the network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention, and theadvantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptionstaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

To describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the presentinvention or in the prior art more clearly, the following brieflyintroduces the accompanying drawings required for describing theembodiments. Apparently, the accompanying drawings in the followingdescription show merely some embodiments of the present invention, andpersons of ordinary skill in the art may still derive other drawingsfrom these accompanying drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a communications equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of another method according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a server according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a method according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a communications equipmentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of another method according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of another method according to an embodiment ofthe present invention; and

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of another method according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

The following clearly and describes the technical solutions in theembodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanyingdrawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Apparently, theembodiments to be described are merely a part rather than all of theembodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments obtained bypersons of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of thepresent invention without creative efforts shall fall within theprotection scope of the present invention.

Embodiment 1

An embodiment of the present invention provides a communications method.The method is a method at a first network element side. As shown in FIG.1, the method includes:

S101: A first network element queries data offloading capabilityinformation of a second network element from a server, where the firstnetwork element has a capability of implementing data offloading.

The method in this embodiment is mainly applied to a process thattransmission is performed on distributed data between a user equipmentand a network equipment. With the increase of traffic of a user, it isdifficult to satisfy a demand of the user for a transmission rate byusing only a same communications system. Currently, in a scenario ofdiversified network technologies, some non-3GPP communications systemsare also popular with an operator, such as a WLAN (wireless LAN,wireless local area network). In order to improve a network transmissionrate, with a method of using different communications systems tooffloadingly transmit on a data service, a part of data is distributedto a non-current communications system, so that the data issynchronously transmitted in two types of communications systems,thereby improving the network transmission rate.

In order to implement data offloading transmission, a first networkelement and a second network element at two sides of data transmissionneed to have a capability of implementing data offloading, and the firstnetwork element and the second network element at the two sides of thedata transmission can acquire data offloading transmission capabilityinformation of each other. That the first network element and the secondnetwork element have a capability of implementing data offloading meansthat the first network element and the second network element canoffloadingly transmit data between a first communications system and asecond communications system, so as to distribute a part of datatransmitted in the first communications system to the secondcommunications system for synchronous data transmission. The dataoffloading transmission capability information refers to one of thefollowing or a combination message of the following: enabling statusinformation of a data offloading function, network offloading settinginformation, and terminal data offloading service IP address or serviceport number information of the first network element or the secondnetwork element.

In this embodiment, when the first communications system is a 3GPPmobile communications system, the second communications system may be anon-3GPP mobile communications system, or optionally, when the firstcommunications system is a 3GPP mobile communications system, the secondcommunications system may be a short-distance wireless communicationssystem, or optionally, when the first communications system is anon-3GPP mobile communications system, the second communications systemmay be a short-distance wireless communications system.

It can be understood that, the foregoing 3GPP mobile communicationsnetwork includes a global system for mobile communication (Global SystemFor Mobile Communication, GSM), wideband code division multiple access(Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA), timedivision-synchronous code division multiple access (TimeDivision-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access, TD-SCDMA), or longterm evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) network. The non-3GPP mobilecommunications network includes worldwide interoperability for microwaveaccess (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, WiMAX) or codedivision multiple access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA) 2000. Theshort-distance wireless communications network includes a WLAN,infrared, Bluetooth or zigbee (Zigbee).

In this embodiment, the first network element may be a user equipment,and the second network element may be a network equipment set at an RAN(Radio Access Network, radio access network) side or a network equipmentset at a core network side or a network equipment set at a packet datanetwork side. The first network element may also be a network equipmentset at an RAN side or a network equipment set at a core network side ora network equipment set at a packet data network side, and the secondnetwork element is a user equipment.

When the first network element or the second network element is a userequipment, and the first communications system is a wirelesscommunications system, the user equipment may be located in a macro cellmacro cell, a micro cell micro cell, a pico cell pico cell or a femtocell femto cell of the first communications system.

Before the first network element and the second network element performdata offloading transmission, firstly a communications system connectionneeds to be established between the first network element and the secondnetwork element. Exemplarily, when the first network element is a userequipment, the second network element is a network equipment set at anRAN side, after entering a network cell where the second network elementis located, the user equipment establishes an EPS (Evolved PacketSystem, evolved packet system)/SAE (System Architecture Evolution,system architecture evolution) bearer connection with the network cellwhere the second network element is located.

In this embodiment, a special equipment or a special server may be setin the second network element, or be connected to the second networkelement. For example, when the first network element is a userequipment, the second network element is a network side equipment set ata network side, and a server that stores data offloading capabilityinformation is set in the second network element, after a communicationssystem connection is established between the first network element andthe second network element, the first network element may query the dataoffloading capability information of the second network element from theserver. Specifically, the first network element may send an instructionof querying a data offloading capability of the second network elementto the server to instruct the server to query the data offloadingcapability information of the second network element. It may beunderstood that, when the server has already stored data offloadingcapability information of the first network element and the dataoffloading capability information of the second network element, theserver may search in its own storage. When the server does not store thedata offloading capability information of the first network element andthe data offloading capability information of the second networkelement, the server may send a query instruction to the second networkelement. The server may be deployed in a PDN (public data network,public data network), and may also be deployed in a CN (Core Network,core network), and is mainly configured to store data offloadingcapability information of the user equipment and data offloadingcapability information of the network equipment in a long term.Definitely, in this embodiment, the server may be a module set in anetwork side equipment. Specifically, when the first network element orthe second network element is a network side equipment, the server maybe set in the first network element or the second network element. Theforegoing setting may also be introduced to subsequent embodiments ofthe present invention, which is not described subsequently again.

In this embodiment of the present invention, there are mainly twoapproaches of acquiring the data offloading capability information ofthe second network element in the server:

A first approach is the data offloading capability information isactively sent to the server by the second network element.

In this acquiring approach, exemplarily, when the second network elementis a network equipment set at a radio access network RAN side, and whenthe second network element completes network deployment, or when a dataoffloading capability of the second network element changes, the secondnetwork element actively sends the data offloading capabilityinformation to the server. When the second network element is a userequipment, and when the second network element starts a network functionfor the first time, or when a data offloading capability of the secondnetwork element changes, the second network element actively sends thedata offloading capability information to the server.

A second approach is the data offloading capability information of thesecond network element is sent to the server by the second networkelement in response to a request.

Specifically, when the server does not include to-be-queried dataoffloading information of the second network element after the firstnetwork element queries the data offloading capability information ofthe second network element from the server, the first network element orthe server may send a request to the second network element, so that thesecond network element sends the data offloading information of thesecond network element to the server in response to the request.

S102: The first network element receives a message that carries the dataoffloading capability information of the second network element and issent by the server.

After obtaining, through querying, the data offloading capabilityinformation of the second network element, where the data offloadingcapability information needs to be queried by the first network element,the server sends the data offloading capability information of thesecond network element to the first network element in a message form.The first network element determines, according to the received dataoffloading capability information of the second network element, whetherto perform data offloading transmission on data.

S103: The first network element performs offloading transmission on datawhen the message indicates that the second network element has acapability of implementing data offloading.

When the data offloading capability information of the second networkelement received by the first network element indicates that the secondnetwork element has a data offloading capability, the first networkelement may start to perform offloading transmission on the dataaccording to enabling status information of a data offloading function,network offloading setting information, and a terminal data offloadingservice IP address or a service port number information in the dataoffloading capability information of the second network element.

When the data offloading capability information of the second networkelement received by the first network element indicates that the secondnetwork element does not have a capability of implementing dataoffloading, the first network element does not perform offloadingtransmission on the data, and maintains an original data transmissionmanner to perform transmission.

This embodiment of the present invention further provides acommunications equipment 200, as shown in FIG. 2, including a queryingmodule 201, an acquiring module 202, and a transmitting module 203.

The querying module 201 is configured to query data offloadingcapability information of a second network element from a server, wherethe communications equipment has a capability of implementing dataoffloading.

The acquiring module 202 is configured to receive a message that carriesthe data offloading capability information of the second network elementand is sent by the server.

The transmitting module 203 is configured to offloadingly transmit datawhich is to be sent when the message indicates that the second networkelement has a capability of implementing data offloading.

Specifically, the transmitting module 203 is configured to offloadinglytransmit data which is to be sent between a first communications systemand a second communications system when the message indicates that thesecond network element has the capability of implementing dataoffloading.

Exemplarily, when the first communications system is a 3GPP mobilecommunications system, the second communications system may be anon-3GPP mobile communications system.

Optionally, when the first communications system is a 3GPP mobilecommunications system, the second communications system may be ashort-distance wireless communications system.

Optionally, when the first communications system is a non-3GPP mobilecommunications system, the second communications system may be ashort-distance wireless communications system.

Specifically, when the communications equipment is a user equipment, thesecond network element is a network equipment set at a radio accessnetwork RAN side or a network equipment set at a core network side or anetwork equipment set at a packet data network side. When thecommunications equipment is a network equipment set at an RAN side or anetwork equipment set at a core network side or a network equipment setat a packet data network side, the second network element is a userequipment.

When the second network element is a user equipment, and the firstcommunications system is a wireless communications system, thecommunications equipment is a network equipment set at an RAN side inthe first communications system, or a network equipment set at a corenetwork side in the first communications system, or a network equipmentset at a packet data network side in the first communications system.

Exemplarily, when the first communications system may be a GSM or aCDMA2000 system, the communications equipment may be a BSC (Base StationController, base station controller) or an MSC (Mobile Switching Center,mobile switching center), or a PDSN (Packet Data Serving Node, packetdata serving node).

When the first communications system may be a WCDMA system, thecommunications equipment may be an RNC (Radio Network Controller, radionetwork controller), or a GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node, gateway GPRSsupport node), or an SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node, serving GPRSsupport node).

When the first communications system may be LTE (Long Term Evolution,long term evolution), the communications equipment may be an eNodeB(Evolved Node B, evolved node B), or an HeNB, or a PGW (Payment Gateway,payment gateway), or an SGW (Signaling Gateway, signaling gateway), oran HeNB GW (Home evolved Node B Gateway, home evolved node B gateway).When the first communications system is Wimax (WorldwideInteroperability for Microwave Access, worldwide interoperability formicrowave access), the communications equipment is an ASN (autonomoussystem, autonomous system) or a CSN (Communications Service Node,communications service node).

A working principle of each module in the communications equipment inthis embodiment is the same as that of the method in this embodiment,which is not described herein again.

This embodiment of the present invention provides a communicationsmethod and equipment. A data transmission peer end equipment acquires,through querying, data offloading capability information of theequipment by actively sending the data offloading capability informationto a server, so that equipments at two sides of data transmission in anetwork can smoothly perform data offloading transmission through theacquired data offloading capability information, thereby improving anair interface throughput rate of the network.

Embodiment 2

An embodiment of the present invention provides another communicationsmethod. The method is a server side method. As shown in FIG. 3, themethod includes:

S301: A server receives data offloading capability information sent by asecond network element.

In order to implement data offloading transmission, a first networkelement and a second network element at two sides of data transmissionneed to have a capability of implementing data offloading, and the firstnetwork element and the second network element at the two sides of thedata transmission can acquire data offloading transmission capabilityinformation of each other. That the first network element and the secondnetwork element have a capability of implementing data offloading meansthat the first network element and the second network element canperform data offloading transmission between a first communicationssystem and a second communications system, so as to distribute a part ofdata transmitted in the first communications system to the secondcommunications system for synchronous data transmission. The dataoffloading transmission capability information refers to one of thefollowing or a combination message of the following: enabling statusinformation of a data offloading function, network offloading settinginformation, and terminal data offloading service IP address or serviceport number information of the first network element or the secondnetwork element.

In this embodiment of the present invention, firstly the second networkelement is enabled to send data offloading information to a server,where the server may be deployed in a PDN network, and may also bedeployed in a CN network, and is mainly configured to store dataoffloading capability information of a user equipment and a networkequipment in a long term.

There are mainly two approaches in which the second network elementsends the data offloading capability information to the server:

A first approach is the data offloading capability information isactively sent to the server by the second network element.

In an active sending approach, exemplarily, when the second networkelement is a network equipment set at a radio access network RAN side,and when the second network element completes network deployment or whena data offloading capability of the second network element changes, thesecond network element actively sends the data offloading capabilityinformation to the server. When the second network element is a userequipment, and when the second network element starts a network functionfor the first time, or when a data offloading capability of the secondnetwork element changes, the second network element actively sends thedata offloading capability information to the server.

A second approach is the data offloading capability information of thesecond network element is sent to the server by the second networkelement in response to a request.

Specifically, when the server does not include to-be-queried dataoffloading information of the second network element after the firstnetwork element queries the data offloading capability information ofthe second network element from the server, the first network element orthe server may send a request to the second network element, so that thesecond network element sends the data offloading information to theserver in response to the request.

S302: The server receives a message of querying data offloadingcapability information of the second network element, where the messageis sent by the first network element, and the first network element hasa capability of implementing data offloading.

In this embodiment of the present invention, before the first networkelement queries a data offloading capability of the second networkelement from the server, a communications system connection should beestablished between the first network element and the second networkelement. Exemplarily, when the first network element is a userequipment, and the second network element is a network equipment set atan RAN side, after entering a network cell where the second networkelement is located, the user equipment establishes an EPS/SAE bearerconnection with the network cell where the second network element islocated.

After a communications system connection is established between thefirst network element and the second network element, the first networkelement may query the data offloading capability information of thesecond network element from the server. Specifically, the first networkelement may send an instruction of querying a data offloading capabilityof the second network element to the server to instruct the server toquery the data offloading capability information of the second networkelement.

The server starts a querying process after receiving a message ofquerying the data offloading capability information of the secondnetwork element, where the message is sent by the first network element.When the server obtains, through querying, the data offloadingcapability information of the second network element required by thefirst network element, the server directly sends the data offloadingcapability information to the first network element. When the serverdoes not obtain, through querying, the data offloading capabilityinformation of the second network element required by the first networkelement, the server may have two solutions:

The first one is directly send a request instruction to the secondnetwork element queried by the first network element, so that the secondnetwork element sends the data offloading capability information to theserver, and the server stores the data offloading capability informationof the second network element and forwards the data offloadingcapability information to the first network element.

The second one is the server sends, to the first network element, asituation that the data offloading capability information of the secondnetwork element required by the first network element is not obtainedthrough querying, the first network element directly sends a dataoffloading function connection to the second network element, orinstructs the second network element to send the data offloadingcapability information to the server, and the server stores the dataoffloading capability information of the second network element andforwards the data offloading capability information to the first networkelement.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the present invention,the first network element has a capability of implementing dataoffloading, and the first network element can perform data offloadingtransmission between the first communications system and the secondcommunications system, so as to distribute a part of data transmitted inthe first communications system to the second communications system forsynchronous data transmission. The data offloading transmissioncapability information refers to one of the following or a combinationmessage of the following: enabling status information of a dataoffloading function, network offloading setting information, andterminal data offloading service IP address or service port numberinformation of the first network element or the second network element.

In this embodiment, when the first communications system is a 3GPPmobile communications system, the second communications system may be anon-3GPP mobile communications system.

Optionally, when the first communications system is a 3GPP mobilecommunications system, the second communications system may be ashort-distance wireless communications system.

Optionally, when the first communications system is a non-3GPP mobilecommunications system, the second communications system may be ashort-distance wireless communications system.

In this embodiment, the first network element may be a user equipment,and the second network element may be a network equipment set at an RANside or a network equipment set at a core network side or a networkequipment set at a packet data network side. The first network elementmay also be a network equipment set at an RAN side or a networkequipment set at a core network side or a network equipment set at apacket data network side, and the second network element is a userequipment.

S303: The server sends the queried data offloading capabilityinformation of the second network element to the first network element,so as to perform data offloading transmission.

Specifically, the server sends the queried or the acquired dataoffloading capability information of the second network element to thefirst network element, so that the first network element performs dataoffloading transmission according to the data offloading capabilityinformation of the second network element.

As shown in FIG. 4, this embodiment of the present invention provides aserver 400, including: an acquiring module 401, a sending module 402,and a receiving module 403.

The acquiring module 401 is configured to acquire a message of queryingdata offloading capability information of a second network element,where the message is sent by a first network element, and the firstnetwork element has a capability of implementing data offloading.

The sending module 402 is configured to send queried data offloadingcapability information of the second network element to the firstnetwork element, so as to perform data offloading transmission.

The receiving module 403 is configured to receive data offloadingcapability information sent by the second network element.

Specifically, the receiving module 403 is configured to receive dataoffloading capability information actively sent by the second networkelement when the second network element completes network deployment orwhen a data offloading capability of the second network element changes;or receive data offloading capability information sent by the secondnetwork element in response to a request of the server or the firstnetwork element.

A working principle of each module of the server in this embodiment isthe same as that of the method in this embodiment, which is notdescribed herein again.

This embodiment of the present invention provides a communicationsmethod and a server. After a message that a first network elementqueries data offloading capability information of a second networkelement is received, the queried data offloading capability informationof the second network element is sent to the first network element, soas to perform data offloading transmission, so that a data transmissionpeer end equipment acquires, through querying, data offloadingcapability information of the equipment, and therefore equipments at twosides of data transmission in a network can smoothly perform dataoffloading transmission through the acquired data offloading capabilityinformation, thereby improving an air interface throughput rate of thenetwork.

Embodiment 3

Another communications method provided in an embodiment of the presentinvention is described in the following with reference to FIG. 7. Anapplication scenario of this embodiment is as follows.

A first network element is a user equipment, and a second networkelement is a network equipment set at an RAN side. Steps of the methodinclude:

S701: The network equipment sends data offloading capability informationto a server.

When the network equipment completes network deployment, or when a dataoffloading capability of the network equipment changes, the networkequipment actively sends the data offloading capability information tothe server.

Or, the network equipment sends the data offloading capabilityinformation in response to a request of the server or the userequipment.

S702: The server receives the data offloading capability informationsent by the network equipment.

S703: The user equipment queries the data offloading capabilityinformation of the network equipment from the server, where the userequipment has a capability of implementing data offloading.

In this embodiment of the present invention, before the user equipmentqueries the data offloading capability of the network equipment from theserver, a communications system connection should be established betweenthe user equipment and the network equipment. After entering a networkcell where the network equipment is located, the user equipmentestablishes an EPS/SAE bearer connection with the network cell where thenetwork equipment is located.

S704: The server receives a message of querying the data offloadingcapability information of the network equipment, where the message issent by the user equipment.

The server starts a querying process after receiving the message ofquerying the data offloading capability information of the networkequipment, where the message is sent by the user equipment.

S705: The server sends the queried data offloading capabilityinformation of the network equipment to the user equipment.

S706: The user equipment receives a message that carries the dataoffloading capability information of the network equipment and is sentby the server.

S707: The user equipment performs offloading transmission on data whenthe message indicates that the network equipment has a capability ofimplementing data offloading.

This embodiment of the present invention provides a communicationsmethod. After a message that a user equipment queries data offloadingcapability information of a network equipment is received, the querieddata offloading capability information of the network equipment is sentto the user equipment, so as to perform data offloading transmission, sothat a data transmission peer end user equipment acquires, throughquerying, the data offloading capability information of the networkequipment, and therefore equipments at two sides of data transmission ina network can smoothly perform data offloading transmission through theacquired data offloading capability information, thereby improving anair interface throughput rate of the network.

Embodiment 4

As shown in FIG. 8, another communications method provided in anembodiment of the present invention is described. An applicationscenario of this embodiment is as follows.

A first network element is a network equipment set at an RAN side, and asecond network element is a user equipment. Steps of the method include:

S801: The user equipment sends data offloading capability information toa server.

When the user equipment starts a network for the first time, or when adata offloading capability of the user equipment changes, the userequipment actively sends the data offloading capability information tothe server.

Or, the server receives the data offloading capability information sentby the user equipment, that is, the second network element, in responseto a request of the server or the network equipment.

S802: The server receives the data offloading capability informationsent by the user equipment.

S803: The network equipment queries the data offloading capabilityinformation of the user equipment from the server, where the networkequipment has a capability of implementing data offloading.

In this embodiment of the present invention, before the networkequipment queries the data offloading capability of the user equipmentfrom the server, a communications system connection should beestablished between the network equipment and the user equipment. Afterentering a network cell where the network equipment is located, the userequipment establishes an EPS/SAE bearer connection with the network cellwhere the network equipment is located.

S804: The server receives a message of querying the data offloadingcapability information of the user equipment, where the message is sentby the network equipment.

The server starts a querying process after receiving the message ofquerying the data offloading capability information of the userequipment, where the message is sent by the network equipment.

S805: The server sends the queried data offloading capabilityinformation of the user equipment to the network equipment, so as toperform data offloading transmission.

S806: The network equipment receives a message that carries the dataoffloading capability information of the user equipment and is sent bythe server.

S807: The network equipment performs offloading transmission on datawhen the message indicates that the user equipment has a capability ofimplementing data offloading.

This embodiment of the present invention provides a communicationsmethod. After a message that a network equipment queries data offloadingcapability information of a user equipment is received, the queried dataoffloading capability information of the user equipment is sent to thenetwork equipment, so as to perform data offloading transmission, sothat a data transmission peer end network equipment acquires, throughquerying, the data offloading capability information of the userequipment, and therefore equipments at two sides of data transmission ina network can smoothly perform data offloading transmission through theacquired data offloading capability information, thereby improving anair interface throughput rate of the network.

Embodiment 5

An embodiment of the present invention provides another communicationsmethod. The method is a first network element side method. It may beunderstood that, in this embodiment of the present invention, a firstnetwork element and a second network element are in a peer relationship.When the first network element is a user equipment, the second networkelement is a network side equipment. When the first network element is anetwork side equipment, the second network element is a user equipment.In this embodiment of the present invention, when one of the foregoingis taken as an example for description, the other is a correspondingmethod, which is not described herein again. As shown in FIG. 5, themethod includes:

S501: The first network element sends a data offloading request messageto the second network element.

In order to implement data offloading transmission, a first networkelement and a second network element at two sides of data transmissionneed to acquire data offloading transmission capability information ofeach other, so as to perform data offloading transmission according tothe acquired data offloading transmission information to distribute apart of data to a non-current communications system, so that synchronoustransmission is performed on data in two types of communicationssystems, thereby improving a transmission rate of a network.

In this embodiment, in order to acquire each other's data offloadingtransmission capability information of the first network element and thesecond network element at two sides of data transmission, the firstnetwork element may directly send a data offloading request message tothe second network element. The first network element should have a dataoffloading transmission capability.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the present invention,the first network element has a capability of implementing dataoffloading, and the first network element can perform data offloadingtransmission between a first communications system and a secondcommunications system, so as to distribute a part of data transmitted inthe first communications system to the second communications system forsynchronous data transmission. The data offloading transmissioncapability information refers to one of the following or a combinationmessage of the following: enabling status information of a dataoffloading function, network offloading setting information, andterminal data offloading service IP address or service port numberinformation of the first network element or the second network element.

In this embodiment, when the first communications system is a 3GPPmobile communications system, the second communications system may be anon-3GPP mobile communications system.

Optionally, when the first communications system is a 3GPP mobilecommunications system, the second communications system may be ashort-distance wireless communications system.

Optionally, when the first communications system is a non-3GPP mobilecommunications system, the second communications system may be ashort-distance wireless communications system.

In this embodiment, the first network element may be a user equipment,and the second network element may be a network equipment set at an RANside or a network equipment set at a core network side or a networkequipment set at a packet data network side. The first network elementmay also be a network equipment set at an RAN side or a networkequipment set at a core network side or a network equipment set at apacket data network side, and the second network element is a userequipment.

Before the first network element directly sends a data offloadingrequest message to the second network element, a communications systemconnection is established between the first network element and thesecond network element. Exemplarily, a communications system connectionmay mean that the first network element and the second network elementestablish a PDP (Packet Data Protocol, packet data protocol) connectionand keep an RRC connection (Radio Resource Control, radio resourcecontrol protocol).

After a communications system connection is established between thefirst network element and the second network element, the first networkelement may send a data offloading request message to the second networkelement.

Preferably, when the first network element may send the data offloadingrequest message to the second network element by setting a mode ofsending the data offloading request message at regular time, and whenthe first network element does not receive, in preset time, the dataoffloading acknowledgement message sent by the second network element,the first network element resends the data offloading request message tothe second network element. When the number of times of resending thedata offloading request message by the first network element reaches thepreset number of times, the first network element stops resending thedata offloading request message to the second network element.

S502: The first network element offloadingly transmits data which is tobe sent when the first network element receives a data offloadingacknowledgement message sent by the second network element.

There are mainly two situations when the first network element receivesthe data offloading acknowledgement message sent by the second networkelement.

A first situation is when the second network element is a userequipment, the first network element is a network equipment set at aradio access network RAN side or a network equipment set at a corenetwork side or a network equipment set at a packet data network side:

If the second network element has a data offloading capability, afterreceiving the data offloading request message sent by the first networkelement, the second network element sends one of the following or acombination message of the following: a data offloading acknowledgementmessage of enabling status information of a data offloading function, adata offloading acknowledgement message of preference setting of networkoffloading, and a data offloading acknowledgement message of a terminaldata offloading virtual IP address and/or service port number of thesecond network element to the first network element.

But, if the second network element does not have a data offloadingcapability, the second network element does not reply. When the numberof sending times of the first network element reaches the preset numberof times of sending the data offloading request message, the firstnetwork element stops resending the data offloading request message tothe second network element, and considers by default that the secondnetwork element does not have a data offloading capability.

A second situation is when the second network element is a networkequipment set at a radio access network RAN side or a network equipmentset at a core network side or a network equipment set at a packet datanetwork side, the first network element is a user equipment:

If the second network element has a data offloading capability and whenthe second network element receives the data offloading request messageof the first network element, the second network element sends a dataoffloading acknowledgement message to the first network element when aload can bear a data offloading function. The data offloadingacknowledgement message includes an enabling status of the dataoffloading function, a data offloading policy, a service port number, aoffloading network access identifier, and a key of the second networkelement.

If the second network element has a data offloading capability, but whenthe second network element receives the data offloading request messageof the first network element, a network cannot bear a data offloadingfunction, the second network element replies with an acknowledgementmessage that establishment of data offloading is not supported, so thatthe first network element receives information that the second networkelement cannot bear the data offloading.

But, if the second network element does not have a data offloadingcapability, the second network element does not reply. When the numberof sending times of the first network element reaches the preset numberof times of sending the data offloading request message, the firstnetwork element stops resending the data offloading request message tothe second network element, and considers by default that the secondnetwork element does not have a data offloading capability.

As shown in FIG. 6, this embodiment of the present invention provides acommunications equipment 600, including: a sending module 601 and atransmitting module 602, where the sending module 601 is configured tosend a data offloading request message to a second network element, andthe transmitting module 602 is configured to offloadingly transmit datawhich is to be sent when the communications equipment receives a dataoffloading acknowledgement message sent by the second network element.

Specifically, the transmitting module is further configured to resendthe data offloading request message to the second network element whenthe communications equipment does not receive, in preset time, the dataoffloading acknowledgement message sent by the second network element.

A working principle of each module in the communications equipment inthis embodiment is the same as that of the method in this embodiment,which is not described herein again.

This embodiment of the present invention provides a communicationsmethod and equipment. Data offloading capability information ofequipments at two sides of data transmission in a network is acquiredthrough active query, so that the equipments at two sides of datatransmission in the network can smoothly perform data offloadingtransmission through the acquired data offloading capabilityinformation, thereby improving an air interface throughput rate of thenetwork.

Embodiment 6

Another communications method provided in an embodiment of the presentinvention is described in the following with reference to FIG. 9. Anapplication scenario of this embodiment is as follows.

A first network element is a user equipment, and a second networkelement is a network equipment set at a data offloading network side.Steps of the method include:

S901: The user equipment sends a data offloading request message to thenetwork equipment.

After the user equipment and the network equipment establish a PDPconnection and keep an RRC connection, the user equipment may send thedata offloading request message to the network equipment.

S902: The network equipment receives the data offloading request messagesent to the network equipment by the user equipment.

S903: The network equipment sends a data offloading request message tothe user equipment when the network equipment has a data offloadingcapability.

After receiving the data offloading request message sent by the userequipment, the network equipment sends one of the following or acombination message of the following: a data offloading acknowledgementmessage of enabling status information of a data offloading function, adata offloading acknowledgement message of preference setting of networkoffloading, and a data offloading acknowledgement message of a terminaldata offloading virtual IP address or service port number of the networkequipment to the user equipment.

S904: The user equipment offloadingly transmits data which is to be sentwhen the user equipment receives a data offloading acknowledgementmessage sent by the network equipment.

This embodiment of the present invention provides a communicationsmethod. In the method, when a first network element is a user equipment,a second network element is a network equipment, and the first networkelement and the second network element may be in a peer relationship. Inthis embodiment of the present invention, one of the foregoing is takenas an example for description, the other is a corresponding method,which is not described herein again.

This embodiment of the present invention provides a communicationsmethod. Data offloading capability information of equipments at twosides of data transmission in a network is acquired through activequery, so that the equipments at two sides of data transmission in thenetwork can smoothly perform data offloading transmission through theacquired data offloading capability information, thereby improving anair interface throughput rate of the network.

Persons of ordinary skill in the art may understand that all or part ofthe steps of the foregoing method embodiments may be implemented by aprogram instructing relevant hardware. The foregoing program may bestored in a computer readable storage medium. When the program is run,the steps of the foregoing embodiments are performed. The foregoingstorage medium may be any medium capable of storing program codes, suchas a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

The foregoing descriptions are merely specific embodiments of thepresent invention, but are not intended to limit the protection scope ofthe present invention. Any variation or replacement readily figured outby persons skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed inthe present invention shall all fall within the protection scope of thepresent invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the presentinvention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

While this invention has been described with reference to illustrativeembodiments, this description is not intended to be construed in alimiting sense. Various modifications and combinations of theillustrative embodiments, as well as other embodiments of the invention,will be apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reference to thedescription. It is therefore intended that the appended claims encompassany such modifications or embodiments.

What is claimed is:
 1. A communications method, comprising: querying, bya first network element, data offloading capability information of asecond network element from a server, wherein the first network elementhas a capability of data offloading; receiving, by the first networkelement, a message that carries the data offloading capabilityinformation of the second network element and is sent by the server; andoffloadingly transmitting, by the first network element, data which isto be sent when the message indicates that the second network elementhas the capability of data offloading.
 2. The method according to claim1, wherein: the first network element is a user equipment, and thesecond network element is a network equipment set at a radio accessnetwork (RAN) side or a network equipment set at a core network side ora network equipment set at a packet data network side; or the firstnetwork element is a network equipment set at an RAN side or a networkequipment set at a core network side or a network equipment set at apacket data network side, and the second network element is a userequipment.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the dataoffloading capability information of the second network element isactively sent to the server by the second network element, or, the dataoffloading capability information of the second network element is sentto the server by the second network element in response to a request. 4.The method according to claim 1, wherein the offloadingly transmitting,by the first network element, the data which is to be sent, comprisesoffloadingly transmitting, by the first network element, the data whichis to be sent in a first communications system and a secondcommunications system.
 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein: thefirst communications system is a 3GPP mobile communications system, andthe second communications system is a non-3GPP mobile communicationssystem; or, the first communications system is a 3GPP mobilecommunications system, and the second communications system is ashort-distance wireless communications system; or the firstcommunications system is a non-3GPP mobile communications system, andthe second communications system is a short-distance wirelesscommunications system.
 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein, whenthe first network element or the second network element is a userequipment, and the first communications system is a wirelesscommunications system, the user equipment is located in a macro cell, amicro cell, a pico cell, or a femto cell of the first communicationssystem.
 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data offloadingcapability information comprises one of the following or a combinationof the following: enabling status information of a data offloadingfunction, network offloading setting information, and a terminal dataoffloading service IP address or a service port number information ofthe second network element.
 8. A communications equipment, comprising: aquerying module, configured to query data offloading capabilityinformation of a second network element from a server, wherein thecommunications equipment has a capability of data offloading; anacquiring module, configured to receive a message that carries the dataoffloading capability information of the second network element and issent by the server; and a transmitting module, configured tooffloadingly transmit data which is to be sent when the messageindicates that the second network element has a capability ofimplementing data offloading.
 9. The equipment according to claim 8,wherein: the communications equipment is a user equipment, and thesecond network element is a network equipment set at a radio accessnetwork (RAN) side or a network equipment set at a core network side ora network equipment set at a packet data network side; or thecommunications equipment is a network equipment set at an RAN side or anetwork equipment set at a core network side or a network equipment setat a packet data network side, and the second network element is a userequipment.
 10. The equipment according to claim 8, wherein, thetransmitting module is specifically configured to offloadingtransmission the data which is to be sent between a first communicationssystem and a second communications system when the message indicatesthat the second network element has the capability of data offloading.11. The equipment according to claim 10, wherein: the firstcommunications system is a 3GPP mobile communications system, and thesecond communications system is a non-3GPP mobile communications system;or, the first communications system is a 3GPP mobile communicationssystem, and the second communications system is a short-distancewireless communications system; or the first communications system is anon-3GPP mobile communications system, and the second communicationssystem is a short-distance wireless communications system.
 12. Theequipment according to claim 11, wherein, when the second networkelement is a user equipment, and the first communications system is awireless communications system, the communications equipment is anetwork equipment set at an RAN side of the first communications system,or a network equipment set at a core network side of the firstcommunications system, or a network equipment set at a packet datanetwork side of the first communications system.
 13. The equipmentaccording to claim 12, wherein, when the first communications system isa GSM or a CDMA2000 system, the communications equipment is a BSC, or anMSC, or a PDSN; when the first communications system is a WCDMA system,the communications equipment is an RNC, or a GGSN, or an SGSN; when thefirst communications system is LTE system, the communications equipmentis an eNodeB, or an HeNB, or a PGW, or an SGW, or an HeNB GW; and whenthe first communications system is a Wimax system, the communicationsequipment is an ASN, or a CSN.
 14. A communications method, comprising:receiving, by a server, a message of querying data offloading capabilityinformation of a second network element, wherein the message is sent bya first network element, and the first network element has a capabilityof data offloading; and sending, by the server, the queried dataoffloading capability information of the second network element to thefirst network element.
 15. The method according to claim 14, furthercomprising: receiving, by the server, data offloading capabilityinformation sent by the second network element.
 16. The method accordingto claim 15, wherein the receiving, by the server, data offloadingcapability information sent by the second network element comprises:receiving, by the server, data offloading capability informationactively sent by the second network element when the second networkelement completes network deployment or when a data offloadingcapability of the second network element changes; or, receiving, by theserver, data offloading capability information sent by the secondnetwork element in response to a request of the server or the firstnetwork element.
 17. A server, comprising: an acquiring module,configured to receive a message of querying data offloading capabilityinformation of a second network element, wherein the message is sent bya first network element, and the first network element has a capabilityof implementing data offloading; and a sending module, configured tosend the queried data offloading capability information of the secondnetwork element to the first network element.
 18. The server accordingto claim 17, further comprising: a receiving module, configured toreceive data offloading capability information sent by the secondnetwork element.
 19. The server according to claim 18, wherein thereceiving module is specifically configured to receive data offloadingcapability information actively sent by the second network element whenthe second network element completes network deployment or when a dataoffloading capability of the second network element changes; or receivedata offloading capability information sent by the second networkelement in response to a request of the server or the first networkelement.
 20. A communications method, comprising: sending, by a firstnetwork element, a data offloading request message to a second networkelement; and offloadingly transmitting, by the first network element,data which is to be sent when the first network element receives a dataoffloading acknowledgement message sent by the second network element.21. The method according to claim 20, further comprising: resending, bythe first network element, the data offloading request message to thesecond network element when the first network element does not receive,in preset time, the data offloading acknowledgement message sent by thesecond network element.
 22. The method according to claim 21, furthercomprising: stopping, by the first network element, resending the dataoffloading request message to the second network element when a numberof times of resending the data offloading request message by the firstnetwork element reaches a preset number of times.
 23. The methodaccording to claim 20, wherein, the sending, by the first networkelement, the data offloading request message to the second networkelement comprises: sending, by the first network element, the dataoffloading request message to the second network element after the firstnetwork element and the second network element establish a packet dataconnection (PDP) connection and keep a Radio Resource Control (RRC)protocol connection.
 24. A communications equipment, comprising: asending module, configured to send a data offloading request message toa second network element; and a transmitting module, configured tooffloadingly transmit data which is to be sent when the communicationsequipment receives a data offloading acknowledgement message sent by thesecond network element.
 25. The communications equipment according toclaim 24, wherein, the transmitting module is further configured toresend the data offloading request message to the second network elementwhen the communications equipment does not receive, in preset time, thedata offloading acknowledgement message sent by the second networkelement.